If you're not familiar with ASMR, it stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and by definition is characterised by a static or tingling sensation on the skin. There are a vast amount of ASMR videos on YouTube, which relax listeners with both gentle and soothing sounds. Even video game companies have been getting in on the action recently - with Nintendo promoting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a unique "sights and sounds" clip not long ago.

Now, Australian-based developer SMG Studio – responsible for the wonderful co-op puzzle game Death Squared and other titles such as Super One More Jump – has hopped on the bandwagon by releasing a 25-minute ASMR video to help prepare "your mind and your body" for its latest Switch eShop release, OTTTD.

In case you're wondering, the title stands for "Over The Top Tower Defense" according to the developer and the entire video above explains much more about the game. If you don't have time to set aside 25 minutes to watch it – and find one of the 20 hidden eShop codes within the video – then here's a bit more about the game directly from the developer PR:

We describe the game as “Spaceballs meets Starship Troopers”. But anyone under 30 has no idea what Spaceballs is (their loss) and legal said we wouldn't be allowed to say that... so we fall back on “It’s an anything-goes TD game that doesn’t take itself seriously.

As for the story, here's what it is about:

The year is 2136. You work for HEROCORP™, the universe’s 4th largest private military force. Your job is to ‘preemptively defend’ the Earth against alien dimensions. As long as you complete the missions under budget and fill out the TPS reports in triplicate, everything goes smoothly. Dimensional travel is facilitated by HEROCORP™ rift technology, which is kinda like Stargate but we’re hesitant to throw that in the mix when we’ve already mentioned Starship Troopers. Is pre-emptively defending Earth ethical? Who cares when the money’s good!

The game includes 25 story missions, three difficulty levels, 12 tower types, seven heroes and multiple weapons, skills, abilities and armour options to choose from. If that wasn't enough, the Switch version even has some special Easter Eggs:

We know the Switch players take their game icons seriously, so we’ve set up Death Squared & OTTTD’s icons to form the first part of a triptych. We’ll be updating Super One More Jump and all our future games to form one continuous artwork.

When he’s not paying off a loan to Tom Nook, Liam likes to report on the latest Nintendo news and admire his library of video games. His favourite Nintendo character used to be a guitar-playing dog, but nowadays he prefers to hang out with Judd the cat.

Mine was always triggered by watching people create art (hearing the pencil, pen, brush etc. while watching someone draw, paint, etc.). Of course, it didn't hurt that Bob Ross' calm, reassuring voice was as smooth as butter. He is the king for a reason.

@Iacobus I actually always liked Bob Ross' program, and I've watched quite a few episodes, but I never considered it to be ASMR. I used to draw and paint myself, so that was one of the main reasons I was interested in his program, and he certainly had a very calm and relaxing way of presenting, which also made it enjoyable to watch.

Of course, back then, the acronym ASMR wasn't even known (or at least not amongst the general public) and nowadays, it's just a buzz word for all kinds of YouTube idiots scratching their nails across all kinds of objects, or whispering idiotic stuff into a microphone.

many thanks SMG Studio - i found and used one of the many hidden codes thanks for sharing your game this way - i think the best code was the morse code one.. i didnt get that one in time .. but that was a nice touch ps the code was C03104WN12B896LP for the morse code -.-. ----- ...-- .---- ----- ....- .-- -. .---- ..--- -... ---.. ----. -.... .-.. .--.

@PBandSmellyIt does help some people sleep like white noise and porn of course. When you think about those sounds of the ocean etc albums have been around since cassette tapes, it just wasn't called asmr.

Nope... managed all of two seconds... I officially hate ASMR.... it makes me feel like I want to peel my own skin off 😬😬. You could get her mouth noises between words, sorry but that’s like noisy eating.... can’t cope... 🥴🥴

The only Tower Defense games I liked were Dungeon Defenders, Sanctum and their sequels. Mixing Tower Defense with in-the thick-of-it shooter mechanics is the best. Can we get some of those on Switch, please?

@EasyDaRon Well, that depends on what you like, and I don't like it at all. To me, it's just annoying and as I mentioned before, some of these ASMR YouTubers are even bordering on creepy, so I don't find it to be relaxing at all.

It's just the new fad of the decade, that now gets a couple of moments in the spotlights. It'll be over in a couple of years, if even that long, and then it'll go back to being niche again.

@EasyDaRon It's not just personal dislike, I can observe and discuss this quite objectively as well. I do sales & marketing for a living, and I can recognize trends and fads pretty easily. (not saying this to beat my chest, just adding it to clarify where my point of view is coming from)

The concept of ASMR has always been there, but only since recent years, perhaps even less, has it become this visible and present, meaning that there's now an upsurge of it in mainstream and social media, which will inevitably also go down again.

And it will, in about 2 to 3 years max, most of these channels will have disappeared from YouTube and main stream media won't pay any attention to it anymore either.

It's just how these things go. In today's world, everyone needs the new feel good thingy yesterday, so people are constantly moving on. Some people will remain interested, so some channels will keep catering to this group, but that is the very definition of becoming niche, which I already mentioned is the direction that this is going, in my previous comment.

@ThanosReXXXPeople love listening and watching to things of what they find relaxing. They always did, just before ASMR. ASMR just professionalized it. You can analyze whatever you want. But it won´t disappear, because it follows a line of what people always loved.

@EasyDaRon Obviously, I was overexaggerating the example, to poke a bit of fun at it. And hundreds of thousands of subscribers/listeners, although very good, isn't exactly stellar, if you look at the top 50 or even top 100 of popular YouTube channels, and no matter which way you want to see it, they DO cater to a specific audience, and that's most definitely not all of us.

You can also clearly see that here, seeing as I'm not the only one commenting negatively on this.

But besides all that, it's okay if not all of us like the same things, so we don't have to argue this to death. You apparently like it, and that's perfectly fine, but I don't like it, and I don't see it taking off anymore than it does now, and usually, that means that the growth of the phenomenon has either stopped and will level off, or will dip back down again. I guess time will tell.

On a side note: as you may have noticed, one of the developers has already entered the comments section to explain that they used ASMR as a joke, so even they are making fun of it. So, the whole point of debating it, already seems kind of moot.

@ThanosReXXXCrafting or embroidery isn't as big as music as well when it comes to popularity and subscribed youtube channels, but it still excists and has it's ongoing community. Look at Let's play which started as fad of the decade, too. And has become one of the biggest things on Youtube and won't disappear ever again.

Also, making fun of and commenting negatively on something isn't an indicator for anything. People commenting negatively on what they don't like is a normal thing and ASMR has no excessive proportion of negative feedback against positive feedback. More the opposite.